Damien could not believe his eyes. He sprang off the chair and stepped back, then awkwardly waved at it in return to confirm whether it had truly waved at him. Truthfully, common sense dictated that in this world this was not something he should be shocked by, yet being new to everything, it still struck him hard.
[Your shadow is confused by your hand gesture.]
"Uh?"
He stared at the message that had appeared before him, then shifted his gaze back to the shadow. Unfortunately, he could not discern any expression of confusion, as there was no face upon which such a thing could be displayed. Damien began to wonder how the shadow had come to life.
As observed, it seemed to possess a mind of its own.
'Is it because of my Affinity, Shadow? But without any Divine Energy, shouldn't it be completely useless?' Damien thought cautiously.
That assumption was sound.
Without Divine Energy, it should not have been possible for his shadow to awaken so abruptly.
Moreover, he had never prompted it to manifest, so why and how had it come into existence in the first place?
As these questions piled up in his mind, the shadow remained eerily still, making no attempt to move.
Suddenly, his phone beeped.
Damien shook his head and checked it. There, he encountered a surprise that drew a smile from his lips, briefly pulling his attention away from the shadow.
"...That was fast. I do not think I have ever seen a workplace as efficient as this. It is almost automatic. Hahaha."
Obviously, he had received his final payment, which brought a welcome increase to his bank account. Thus, Damien completely ignored the shadow and sank back onto the couch as he quickly revisited the authorized store to check out the Exalted weapon he had purchased.
[Your shadow is sad for being ignored at its moment of birth.]
Damien grimaced.
"Birth mom... forget about it. Ugh."
The shadow slowly receded into the darkness after realizing that its... umm... master, was it?
Well, its master had clearly shunned it.
After Damien completed the purchase of the dagger, he set his phone aside and drew a deep breath. The delivery would arrive tomorrow, so perhaps he should go hunting at the same time. He was left with exactly 300 Els, while his rent stood just twenty Els short of 400. On that note, the rent was due tomorrow, though he had a grace period of three days under the laws that governed the land. If he failed to pay within that window, he would be evicted without delay.
Since he was never particularly skilled in financial literacy, he found himself deeply questioning whether he had made a mistake.
Damien rolled his eyes.
"Pssh. I will get the damn money tomorrow, then."
His gaze drifted back to his shadow, sharp enough to be likened to a blade. The shadow did not react at all. Perhaps it was asleep.
***
Quite early in the morning, the doorbell rang loudly. Damien's eyes snapped open with sudden energy, and he rushed out of his room toward the door to answer it. When he stepped outside, he found a small delivery package resting in front of his door and grinned as he picked it up before closing the door behind him.
"Finally. It's here."
Damien grinned.
However, the moment he opened the package he had been so excited about, his smile wilted like a dead rose. He could not help but scoff.
"Well, all delivery stores are the same, no matter the timeline or the universe."
He lazily rubbed his face and took out the dagger to inspect it more closely. It did have a golden handle, just as shown in the image, yet seeing it in person made it look utterly fake. The blade was curved as advertised, but everything about it felt like a complete counterfeit of what had been displayed on the online store. He had only just woken up, and already the day was off to a bad start.
To be honest, it did not hit him hard enough to make him lose hope in the whole mess he was about to step into.
The first thing he did was take a bath. Afterward, he dressed in a plain white sweatshirt and sweatpants, then covered his face with a black cap. His shadow followed him around, remaining quiet throughout, until it glanced at the slippers he was wearing as he prepared to head outside.
[Your shadow is utterly disappointed and disgusted by your dress sense.]
Damien frowned.
"What do you mean?"
His gaze dropped to his feet, and he immediately cursed under his breath. Damien had not realized he was wearing rabbit-themed footwear with pointy ears. He kicked them off and switched into sneakers instead. After that, he wrapped the dagger in a white cloth and secured it at his side.
When he stepped outside his door, he took out his phone to search for the area where he would be hunting. Coming from a prominent family, Damien had undergone basic training sufficient to survive combat against Lower Monsters, and the necessary muscle memory was already deeply ingrained.
Locating the hunting ground was neither difficult nor something that required verification. Only one such place existed in the world, or rather, it was the only one discovered to date, and entry was free. It spanned over forty percent of Elypia's landmass, and it was imperative that every Awakened Demigod hunted there on a daily basis. The region harbored an overwhelming concentration of Monsters, which the gods had forcibly driven back into that territory, a place known as the Fallen Land.
At times, Monsters would breach the stable world through two primary means. The first occurred when their numbers reached a critical threshold and they somehow spilled into the cities, triggering what was commonly referred to as a Wide Break. The second happened when a powerful Monster took possession of the body of a Demigod after their death within the Fallen Land.
The most recent Wide Break had occurred thirty years ago and had inflicted devastating damage across the entirety of Elypia, claiming the lives of countless mortals and Demigods alike. Since then, daily hunting had become a necessity for every Demigod. Hunters were compensated for each kill, with payment determined by the Monster's rank. However, if the hunter belonged to a House, a portion of the earnings would be claimed by it. This was one of the many reasons why operating as a solo hunter carried significant advantages (refer to Chapter 2).
Damien hailed a taxi from the front of his house, his expression utterly devoid of emotion. Not a trace of worry surfaced on his face.
'I only need to kill one Lower Monster and get out of there,' he thought with firm resolve.
That alone would be enough.
However, the true issue lay in the nature of the Fallen Land itself. It was notoriously unpredictable, and the circumstances one might encounter there held the power to irrevocably alter their perception of life and the fate awaiting them. Put simply, it meant crossing paths with a high ranked Monster one never anticipated and dying in an instant.
[Your shadow becomes slightly frightened.]